Computerized Hittite Cuneiform Sign Recognition and Knowledge-Based System Application Examples

Abstract

The Hittites had lived in Anatolia more than 4000 years ago. The Hittite language is one of the oldest and may be the only one still readable and grammar rules are known member of Indo-European language family. The Hittites had a cuneiform script of their own written on soft clay pads or tablets. Tablets made durable and permanent by baking them after writing with some tools. That is why they could endure for thousands of years buried in the ground. The study of Hittite language has been made manually on the Hittite cuneiform tablets. Unfortunately, field scientists have read and translated only a relatively small number of unearthed tablets. Many more tablets are still waiting under and over ground in Anatolia for reading and translation into various languages. To read and translate the cuneiform signs, using computeraided techniques would be a significant contribution not only to Anatolian and Turkish but also to human history. In this paper, recognition of Hittite cuneiform signs by using computer based image-processing techniques is reported. Additionally, uses of data-mining applications are also included in the paper. Most importantly, the authors also demonstrated feasibility of an expert system on the Hittite cuneiform scripts.